News

How Dublin’s docklands drowned in debt

Commuters were drifting towards their offices in Dublin's glittering docklands. The economic boom was at full throttle, evinced by the cranes strafing the skyline. It was 8am on Tuesday, October 24, 2006. In the headquarters of the Dublin Docklands Development Authority (DDDA), the commercial state body responsible for regenerating the capital's derelict quaysides, the eight government-appointed board members were being patched through for a fateful conference-call.

That meeting provides a window onto the nexus of a golden circle of bankers, builders and politicians once lionised as fearless wealth creators and now pilloried for the savageness of the Irish recession.

Of the eight, it was the participation of two directors, Sean FitzPatrick and Lar Bradshaw, both board members of Anglo Irish Bank, that provided the microcosm of omniscient crony capitalism.

The other six directors were Mary Moylan from the Department of the Environment; Declan McCourt, a director of Bank of Ireland;